18 June 2011

Perpignan - Catalan Concert

June 17 ~~ Sunny and warm, breezy

We considered taking a day trip to Villefranche-de-Conflent, and the Yellow Train (link) from there. This idea was doomed! When we walked to the bus station, we found there was no information center, so we continued on to the tourist center. We did find all sorts of bus schedules there, but no timetable that would work for us (much later, we found that there is also a train to the village). The good news is that we got a very nice schedule of events for the Festival of Saint John that had just started :-).

The rest of the day was given over to wandering the old town, getting our bearings, and finding a laverie to do laundry. Speaking of laundry... The automated (not staffed) one we found had the directions all spelled out, and it was fundamentally easy. But as with all things done the first time, a little show and tell from someone who knows the ropes always helps. A lovely woman did just that! Then she even showed us where the good grocery store was :-D.

After a little rest back at the hotel, we headed out to Place de la Republique - there was a *great* concert full of Catalan music - four groups took turns performing, and we loaded up on local sounds. I took some short videos, which may or may not be worth uploading - stay tuned ;-)